


'cause i'm just getting started, let me offend

by neonloser



Category: Warriors - Erin Hunter
Genre: i swear my new writing is better i'm getting to those uploads okay give me time, reupload
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-15
Updated: 2016-06-15
Packaged: 2018-07-15 08:13:47
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,278
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7214659
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/neonloser/pseuds/neonloser
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>the devil's got nothing on me, my friend</p>
            </blockquote>





	'cause i'm just getting started, let me offend

**Author's Note:**

> this is just a reupload of a fic i wrote early in 2015, about some shitty oc's!

Salt sprayed up the steep hillside in greedy tendrils stretching out from the claws of the sea. Comforting warmth baked the dark sandy cliffs, ruffling scruffy grass that crept slowly inland towards the deeper swaths of green palms and thick trunks. Excited voices mingled in tune with the heavy slapping of waves on rock, singing to the evening sun as she sunk gracefully into the water.

A lone pair of jaws was clamped shut. They quivered slightly. A stoic figure perched on the edge of the sky and ground, shockingly emerald eyes surveying his onlookers with mingled fear and admiration.

Despite promises whispered in the silence of an empty camp, or the sound of stomachs grumbling because their owners had spent days trying to keep someone else's kit fed, or the blatant favoritism of their leader, Reefheart did not belong to StormClan. To any outsider, it would be obvious.

His sleek solid brown fur was softer and shinier than most, as his sharp muzzle and thin figure had never aided him in helping dig out the storm season camp. And those eyes. Ruminating and hard, they couldn't be natural. No... no, Tangsteam's eyes were a murky blue-black, and Talonscar's had been missing since Reefheart was born. They weren't like his, though. Nobodies were.

But loyalty is blinding. Cat's don't see what they don't want to see, and that included their brave and intelligent warriors false blood. He was a stain on StormClan's pure minds- scum, compared even to the weakest kit in the nursery. Dapplesteam knew this all along, of course. Her shrewd gaze raked over him with more fierce intensity than any other onlooker.

"Warriors and apprentices of StormClan- and ValleyClan," her sharp voice shattered the nervy rambling of every other cat, silencing hushed tones entirely. A couple of bright eyes peeked out from either row of cats; ValleyClan apprentices that were spending the season with their neighboring Clan. Glidersteam would hear of this.

Reefheart realized momentarily that he wouldn't be around to explain his side of the story to ValleyClan's leader. He blanched. Dapplesteam continued, mottled pelt rippling along her spine. "As you all know, a great grievance has been forced upon our Clan. About..." Her eyes flickered "Twenty-four moons ago. Tangsteam's first son was born." Dapplesteam lowered her head respectfully, turning away from Reefheart to study the crowd. "And twenty-four moons ago, Tangsteam's first son died."

Shocked murmurs darted between the gathering. A prickly-furred black-and-white tom shouldered his way past a smaller white cat, ears pinned against his skull (either whipped back by wind or anger, it was hard to tell. Probably anger, knowing the cat). Mulberrywhisker lashed his tail, spitting "You only claimed that Reefheart was a traitor to be punished. You daren't say that Tangsteam lied to us all, as well?" His thick meow always made Reefheart's pelt prickle with an urge to prove himself to the old warrior.

Dapplesteam quickly brushed a paw over her whiskers. "I only speak the truth, Mullberrywhisker. I mean no harm to Tangsteam's memory, but," That gaze- that gaze, draining Reefheart's blood and nipping at his tail. "Even the best of us make mistakes." Reefheart's small paws shook.

Dapplesteam continued swiftly, flattening her tortoiseshell pelt as best she could. "I suspected my whole life that Reefheart was a misfit. And, as always, I was right." Her eyes shined, and she watched her cats proudly. "I always believed that Tangsteam was right in choosing me as his deputy, and that was proved to me tonight."

The little white cat, Milkflower, pricked her ears curiously. "Tangsteam was still granted access to SteamClan after telling such a lie?"

Dapplesteam flicked her tail dismissively. "Of course he did. He was there among all of our ancestors to give me my lives. A noble leader. A single scar on a cat's pelt doesn't make them any less handsome." A few of the older warriors murmured in agreement.

"When I was given my nine lives, I promised SteamClan that I would do all I could to preserve our morals and pride." Taking a shaky breath, she reeled back around and took a short pace towards Reefheart. His hind paws tapped nervously against the pebbly cliff edge.

The sky yanked at his long brown tail, begging him to join her beside the stars. He didn't belong there. He belonged back in the earth beside the rest of StormClan's ancestors, one with the heat and the rock. Or- or did he? Did he deserve that. Of course not, of course he didn't. He was a fraud. Reefheart deserved to live forever on the sea floor, bones cleaned by tides and tarpon. Only purebloods ranked in SteamClan. Perhaps ValleyClan's more lenient ancestors would convince the others. It didn't matter. It did. It shouldn't.

"Every good leader must sacrifice themselves for their Clan." She laughed softly, a laugh that echoed dully around in the quickly darkening air. "Metaphorically, of course. There are others we've found to give to SteamClan in thanks." Dapplesteam's voice sharpened, all humor gone. "And one of these is Reefheart. A loner- a rogue living among us, as if he didn't remember his own truths."

And Reef did remember his own truths. Those truths weren't that his blood father was a rogue and his birth mother a farm cat. Those truths were the rumble of Talonscar's belly against his kitten soft ears. The proud gaze of Tangstar that set a fire in his chest like no other. The gentle press of Sandfoot's cool paw on his sore throat. The terrified cry of Dapplepaw as she stretched a paw towards him in the dead of night.

One of her claws had been ripped out, and the rest scuffed as she desperately tried to cling onto an outcropping in the reef. Moonlight wrapped her in a soft pelt and asked her to leave Reefpaw to drown, but she wouldn't. Despite the pain in her shoulders she raked her claws down his cheeks and broke all the rules that Sharkface had taught them ("Never- I repeat, never, fight a current. The sea loves us. If he wants you, then it's your time; if not, he'll release you when he likes.") and held Reefpaw to her chest as the tide went out and the sun came up and beat their backs with heat and pain and they struggled to the shore and they prayed to the sand and they got in trouble and couldn't leave the camp for a moon even after Dapplepaw's dislocated shoulder was fixed and they shared a nest and prey and secrets and they planned to rule the world together.

Dapplesteam turned her square muzzle to the sky, now twinkling with three or four stars that were more beautiful and numerous than anything the land could produce, and closed her eyes. "SteamClan. We thank you for bestowing us with a gift that we may return to you. I, personally, thank you for sharing the treachery of a warrior that could have harmed my home. We ask only for strong kits and more honorable warriors. Thank you."

She slowly lowered her chin again, and Reefheart resigned himself to his fate. She took another greater stride forward, and pressed her nose gently against his forehead. Maybe, he thought for a moment, maybe if he landed just right (and he wasn't dead already) he could escape once he hit the water. Glidersteam would spare him. Maybe.

Reefheart soon decided something else. Memory meant nothing when you lived amongst the dead. Reefheart, lungs exploding, eyes burning something fierce, and shattered hip rocketing against a bundle of sharp rocks, thought that Dapplesteam had been mostly dead for some time.


End file.
